Front Yard Color
I’m not saying we started from the bottom, as the song goes… but we definitely did NOT start at the top and now we are HERE. Ok we’re not there - as in the point of complete cuteness and porch amazingness that I would like us to achieve. But here is a good spot - it’s got a fence, greenery I (mostly) don’t despise, and a porch that isn’t soggy.
Yes. When the folks who renovated our house got to the porch, they looked at it and said “Let’s add some plywood.” Wait, WHAT? Like on the outdoor surface? That gets wet? They added plywood — a material that is notorious for folding in damp conditions? Yes. Sadly. Yes. To the left you can see what the front of our home looked like in the listing photos when we purchased it. Can you say “zero curb appeal”?
We discovered as much when the porch started feeling SOGGY. Ew. By November, we’d gotten nervous. By December, we’d contracted a builder. By the end of February, I’d accidentally fallen through the porch with my foot (over which I put one of my hand orange cones). Fortunately, the builder was scheduled to work one week after I’d stomped through the sogginess. And work he did! In a mere two days, Keith yanked out every rotten board and replaced it with well-spaced, quality wood. We are so relieved! We took the chance to add a hand railing to the porch because I’ve always thought it looked both silly and unsafe without it. For the back of the porch by the swing, we opted for a green wall (more on that later as it grows).
Last spring, I pulled out all the ugly that I could, left a few of the larger greeneries in place, and set to work on bringing more pink into the world. You can tell I was fully in denial of the fact that palms don’t grow well in Tennessee by the recent purchase next to the door. We had yet to put up the swing or replace the door, but isn’t it already so much better?
This year, I wanted more color. I’d already updated the door to the door of my dreams (pink border around full glass window! and yes the natural life is SO worth it). I had plenty of pink. So I figured I’d start by seeing what stuck around from the year before: the tulips came back in March, the bushy broccoli lookin’ things returned and were full and happy, the hostas are doin’ the most. I still dislike the three brighter green buddies that get a little stringy and can turn yellow-red-orange-brown splotchy randomly. But I digress.
We turned to Gardens of Babylon for some inspiration. And now we want a moss wall. And we definitely are going to do some espalier with fruit trees that grow decently in Tennessee (Jackson has taken over as our residential not-in-denial-Reimers-in-charge-of-plant-selection).
We selected some perennials from GoB to accompany a few annuals that I’d gotten early at Homie Deeps (I knew the prices on hosta would be unnecessarily absurd at GoB). Below is our new porch (waiting to be painted and stained) with the greenery as it had grown back in this year. Ok, plus all the weeds!
And here is the update with our bits of color tucked in! I only had enough mulch for the smaller of the areas so I’ll be doing that later this week. Colors were inspired by the fading floral arrangement you can see on the sill: these were my sister’s anniversary flowers from her boyfriend, made by our fantastic florist neighbor across the street, Tara! Add to the some day list: cut flower garden.
Po clearly had a blast playing in the hose spray (his fave summer activity) and seems to know not to go into the garden box anymore. We’ll see if the NEW PUPPY we’re getting tomorrow can learn the same trick!
xo,
em
Sissy Date
This sissy date is from a while back (February 14th, 2019), but I wanted to share it as just one variation on the theme of sissy dates.
As you may know, I love my sister Camille. I think she is extremely cool, she’s the kindest person you’ll meet, and she always knows how to put her own pizazz on things. She’s ostrich feathers and tea in Paris. She’s panning for glass bits in my stream and recycling event florals to give to folks who need cheering up. She’s a fancy cocktail in her pajamas. She’s singing Shrek’s praises and telling you all the Bosch details you didn’t know you needed to know.
Like any family member, spending lots of quantity time and much quality time together throughout the years has given us a special bond. AND I want to keep getting to know her. She’s changed! Can you believe it? People change! Sometimes they get even better. I want to know who she is now and who she’s becoming, not just who she was to me at age 6 (an adorably aggressive hugger) or 13 (a makeup pro already) or even at 25 (the most generous carer for my grandfather).
So we go on sissy dates. While we often hang out casually, mostly when she stops by to see Potato (I am in second, maybe even third place now), we also really like to have dedicated time to do an activity or go somewhere fun together. Most recently, we did our first annual Sissy Weekend. Because we’re both pretty broke (thanks, 2020 and grad school), we did a staycation with face masks, homemade poptails (that’s a cocktail in a popsicle), massages, and a three night sleepover.
Here’s a sissy date from a time when the world was more open. Valentine’s Day 2019. Just because she was single didn’t mean she had to sit out a Valentine’s Date (not that I was her only offer on that front, but I like that I beat out the competition). We went to lunch and then made candles and drank champagne. Zero complaints here.
I *may* have purchased more than just a candle here (but those throw pillows were on super sale, babe!). We enjoyed sniffing all the scents, having a guided activity neither of us had tried before (I now pour my own candles at home), and getting dressed up to be out and about in the world together.
We’ve done picnics and roof top bars. We’ve gone to a Ke$ha concert and danced on Broadway. We’ve spent hours in McKays and devised intentionally bad business plans (one of our fave past times). And we’re looking forward to getting to be out and about on a sissy date in the near future! So thanks one more time to Dolly Parton for making our vaccine dreams come true.
xo,
em
6,386 Miles. Off We Go!
August 2020. We winded down the twists of the Pacific Coast Highway, the ocean lapping at the sandy edge of California.
August 2020. We winded down the twists of the Pacific Coast Highway, the ocean lapping at the sandy edge of California. Three days before, we’d driven south through the Redwoods, putting some time and distance between our plane flight to Seattle (masked and middle seat empty) before we’d visit family in the Bay Area. There, staring at those shaggy-barked giants, we talked about how we wished we could stay for longer than a day. By the times we’d reached Big Sur, the bee in my bonnet was buzzy enough to provoke me to say, “What if we turned our car into a camper?”
Classic Emma. Another wild idea that I’d have to save for another day.
To my surprise, Jackson nodded slowly, then turned to me and said, “I think we should do that. It’s kind of out there, but since we’re still social distancing, we could take it out, be in the woods, reading and writing for school and for our own stuff. I’m down.”
October 2020. We took the 2x4s that had been in the wall in our new house that we hired Chris Crowder Construction (highly recommend) to remove. I channeled my childhood afternoons spent drawing elaborate plans for impossible forts and drew some mock-ups for the build. A few trips to Lowe’s later, and we had a saw, plywood, and bolts to secure our structure to the car. See our conversion (and a few of our restful days) in October in the video below!
Fast-forward to Thanksgiving. We’d been in full isolation and trying to assess what our holiday season would look like this year given the spikes of COVID across the nation. We knew we didn’t want to fly. But driving would be kind of nuts, right? How would we do it without exposing ourselves to other people? And how long would it take? Could we figure out a way to see Grampa in Southern California on the way to see Mom in Northern California? SO MANY QUESTIONS.
December 2020. Let’s start with the gratitude we have for our friends watching our plants and home - y’all rock!
We’re all packed up (a photo of that later) and hitting the road! We’ll have intermittent service, but we’ll do our best to post an occasional update. If you’ve got any favorite road trip things—car games, radio stations, podcasts, albums, audiobooks, stops we hadn’t considered, tips and tricks—drop us a comment! With over 116 hours in the car ahead of us, you might just be saving our sanity.
The twelve national parks we plan to hit:
Rocky Mountain
Arches
Canyonlands
Bryce
Zion
Sequoia
Kings Canyon
Yosemite
Joshua Tree
Grand Canyon
Petrified Forest
Hot Springs
Catch you on the flip side, folks!
xo,
em (and jacks and tato)
Goodbye, wallpaper. Hello, paint!
When wallpaper is too expensive but you still want a pop of color and pattern in a space, painting is the way to go.